October 16, 2009

Cooco for Couscous

Milk and soy allergy you say? How can that be? But it’s true my little guy is allergic to soy and and dairy, which sent me reeling a few months ago. I had to kick the dairy habit, which for a yogurt and butter lover such as I was hard. I’m sorry did I just whine?

Well, now little guy is a seven month old with two teeth and ready to move on from strained peas. What do I feed him? He’s not quite ready for table food, and quite frankly, with two other children in the household prepared baby food is so handy. Don’t you know I have to read the labels of baby food for milk as well??? I just didn’t think baby food would have dairy in it since so many kiddos are allergic, but they do.

So what are my choices…there’s Gerber of course. But the ones I found have dairy in them. Organics' Best had a couple of choices. Then there is Nestle which owns Gerber, they seem to be an option, but I can’t find them in the states. I have a couple of samples from my parents brought back some from their trip to Sweden this year. Which brings me to the title of the blog, they brought back Couscous with Chicken. Couscous for babies? Babies can eat couscous? They sure can, and little guy loves it. Since I only had one jar, I am now making couscous with chicken at home, and it’s pretty yummy. He loves it, and it wasn’t that bad to make. Here’s the recipe if you would like to try it at home. Big people like it as well, you just may want to add some salt and pepper and maybe a spice or two. Enjoy!

Couscous with Chicken
1 lbs. Ground Chicken
1 package couscous, cooked according to the package
1/2 cup pureed mango
1 zucchini
1 red pepper
4 carrots
1/2 onion
Heat about a Tbs. olive oil and sauté the onion and brown the chicken at the same time. When the chicken has browned, set it aside (remember to break up the chicken into very small pieces). Meanwhile I pureed a mango, with a little bit of water. I cubed the zucchini and three of the carrots and boiled them until they were very soft. Then using a food processor, I essentially pureed the vegetables. The remaining carrot, I cut, into very small bite size pieces, just big enough for the baby to have something to chew on and boiled those pieces until they were extremely soft. Then I combined, the chicken, prepared couscous and the vegetables, and the mango and we had a ton our own Couscous with Chicken.

Now I have to say, that it doesn’t have the same jelled consistency that a lot of baby food has. I think that’s because I didn’t use any cornstarch and flour to make a gravy, but it really wasn’t needed. He loves it just the way it is. So, I’m not changing a thing. In my mind if it works stick with it.

So this is the start of my baby food making journey, how long, and how intense of a journey it is going to be is still in the works. This or one other recipe may be the entirety, you just never know. But so far it’s been fun and rewarding.